Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, which is a specialized field of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), is well-known in the medical field. Typically, a patient is placed on a flat surface and a surface coil is positioned under a specific body part of the patient to be imaged, such as, the patient's wrist, fingers, toes, foot, head or elbow. Various coil positioning arrangements have been proposed as evidenced by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,684,894; 4,920,318; and 5,057,777.
The diagnostic quality of the MRI examination is dependent upon image resolution which is adversely affected by movement of the patient. Because children seldom voluntarily remain motionless during the course of the study, sedation of the child is frequently employed. Sedated children, and patients of all ages who sleep during the study, often have involuntary movements of the body part being examined, introducing motion to the images, thereby degrading image resolution.
To reduce the likelihood of voluntary or involuntary movement of the body part being examined which might degrade the quality of the image resolution, the surface coil holder of the present invention has been devised to affix the body part being examined to the surface coil in such a manner to thereby prevent movement of the body part, whereby image resolution is enhanced.